What is an opportunity?
Our friends at Merriam-Webster define opportunity as 1: A favorable juncture of circumstances. 2. A good chance for advancement or progress. Both of these are great definitions for our purposes. Basically, something comes up that can change the game in your favor. It might be pure luck, or it might be something that you planned to set up. Either way, if you can take advantage of it, you can completely change the game.

Sometimes an opportunity is destruction oriented, such as taking out an enemy tank. Sometimes it is objective oriented, such as claiming a table quarter or withdrawing the remnant of a unit to preserve Victory Points. (An example of the last would be when I realized that I had a single Genestealer left from a brood of 6. Instead of just throwing him into the fight with another brood or two, I pulled him back to preserve the Victory points. Sure, that was only 48pts, but that was 1/3 of the point difference between a win and a loss in that game. Those points add up quickly.)

What are opportunities good for?

A temporary shift in the balance of power
This would be local superiority in a nutshell. Let's say that you and your opponent each have 1000pts evenly distributed on both sides of the board. That means that your right flank has about 500pts to their 500pts, and the same situation on the left flank. If you destroy a 150pt tank on your left flank, that flank is suddenly 500pts to 350pts. That's a big difference in how much damage you can do compared to how much damage you will take in return.

A shift in Momentum
Here is where you have to take advantage of the opportunity. Simply destroying an enemy tank is useful, but if you can leverage that destruction to accomplish more, it will actually change the battle. Maybe you can seize on the destruction of the tank to take an objective, or you can simply reinforce the success by moving other units into the area or into an area where they will be more effective (but had been prevented by the tank.) Reinforcing the success further increases your local superiority (for example, going from 500vs500 to 500vs350 to 700vs350. The greater the differential, the faster and more bloodless (for you anyway!) the victory on that side will be. By changing the flow and focus of the battle, you will force your opponent to react to the change and make him change his plans.

How do I make opportunities?
By the very nature of games of 40k, sometimes opportunities will occur. With a variety of different units and capabilities, sometimes they will come together in the right way at the right time for you. In addition, due to the vagaries of the dice, sometimes something fortunate will simply happen. (Blowing up the tank with that lucky shot, for example.) However, you can anticipate some forms of opportunity, or even plan for them as far back as army selection. Here are some places to look for opportunities, and how to increase the chances of them happening.

Range
If your weapons outrange the opponent, then you can hit him without being hit back. Even if this is just temporary or is only one or two units, it's still an opportunity. If even one unit can hit the enemy without being hit back, you are likely to be causing more damage than you receive. If this is the case, the enemy army is getting smaller faster than your army is. Psychologically, it is also devastating to get hit and not be able to hit back. To take the most advantage of this opportunity, try to take out the long-range weapons that can hit you back. Target them first and you will be able to leverage that opportunity considerably. In army creation, look for weapons that have very long range or perhaps don't need line of sight to work. These have an effect on the enemy out of proportion to the actual damage done.

If you have shorter-than-usual ranged weapons, there is an opportunity there as well. Weapons can only effect targets that are in range and line of sight. This means that if you shoot at a Space Marine squad where 5 Space Marines are behind a wall from you and the one Missile Launcher guy is in sight, Mr. Missile Launcher has to die. Similarly, if you have a weapon with an 18" range, and Mr. Missile Launcher is 17.5" away and the other Space Marines are 18.5" away, if you cause any casualties, he's got to go. This isn't always easy to set up, but it can be very worthwhile, and give you some opportunities. I used to do this a lot with Zoanthrope Warp Blasts and enemy characters. They'd put their character in the front of the unit, and when they got within 18", Zap goes the Chaplain! In army creation, utilize those powerful, short-ranged weapons, then make sure that you place them carefully to take advantage of their capabilities. Note that if they are assault weapons, they are much more effective, since you don't have to rely on the enemy moving to just the right spot. You can often move the assault weapon carrier a little to one side or the other to make sure that he will have just the one target that you want, while still keeping in squad coherency.

Firepower
Know the capabilities of your weaponry, it might just present you with an opportunity. One of the best is taking down vehicles. A good chunk of the basic weaponry of the game (such as Bolters) is S4. That means it can damage AV10. Most vehicles have AV10 for their rear armor, and lighter vehicles also have it on their sides or even their front. A squad that moves up, turns and fires into the back of a Leman Russ might just turn the tide of a battle. Similarly, when I was playing my Tyranid Swarm army, I used a couple of broods of Termagants for their S4 weapons. With a 12" range and 6" movement, any Landspeeders within 18" of either side of my swarm were doomed. Also consider the possibilities of any "special" weapons. A S7 Plasma Rifle has a small chance of damaging AV13, which is front armor on all but the heaviest tanks, and has an easier time of damaging AV12, which is often the side armor on even those tanks. If you have an option, choose weaponry with a higher Strength, so it has a better chance of damaging vehicles. (An example might be an IG Multilaser over a Heavy Bolter. Both get 3 shots, but the Multilaser is S6 and the Heavy Bolter is S5.) Also, consider the placement of your weaponry so that you have extra coverage from these weapons if you see particularly good targets in the enemy army. (My example of the Termagants and Landspeeders, for instance.)

Mobility
Change your location, change your perspective. Shifting a unit changes it's lines of sight and changes where it can fire or assault from. You may be able to shoot at the side or rear of a vehicle by moving a unit. You may be able to move your unit to a point where it can fire but not be fired on, or where it can only be seen by one enemy, which you then shoot. Mobility lets you move out of line of sight so the enemy has to come to you. (A nasty thing if your unit is a brood of Genestealers!) Mobility also lets you seize objectives or assault the enemy. Use your movement, and look for opportunities to use it. My Tyranids almost always charge vehicles if there aren't any infantry in range. Even though a S3 Hormagaunt cannot damage any vehicle in the game, it gives me a free move closer to the enemy lines, which means less time before I can charge. The farther you can move, the more chance that you can surprise your opponent and create an opportunity. A unit of Raptors with 3 Melta guns is a great unit because it's got heavy firepower and can rapidly shift from one side of the board to the other, or quickly move around or behind enemy units. With such a large sphere of influence, an opportunity is almost guaranteed to arise. On the other hand, you don't have to be able to move fast to make an opportunity. If you move when your opponent expects you to stay still, you can achieve that same surprise. This might be moving backward to keep the enemy unit from charging you for another turn, or it might be moving forward to take the charge from them, or shifting around to hit the side of an enemy vehicle. Any of those might be an opportunity, you just have to take it. In army creation, choose units with good basic mobility or give them vehicles. Even with units that have standard movement, remember that they can move. Don't just leave them stationary simply because they've got a heavy weapon. Consider what the benefits of moving them might be, versus leaving them still to fire the heavy weapon.

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